International envoy Kofi Annan said he agreed with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Monday for a new "political approach" to end Syria's 16-month conflict.

It was Mr Annan's third visit to Syria in efforts to bring bloodshed to an end, and the agreement will now be put to the rebel forces.

The former UN chief, whose military observers in Syria have been grounded due to escalating violence, said he "stressed the importance of moving ahead with political dialogue, which the president accepted."

"We discussed the need to end the violence and ways and means of doing so. We agreed an approach which I will share with the armed opposition," he told reporters after meeting Mr Assad in Damascus.

Mr Annan is now hoping to broaden the focus from a possible ceasefire to the establishment of political dialogue between the warring sides.

On German television, Mr Assad has said Mr Annan's peace plan is a good one but that other countries want the plan to fail and are offering arms, money or political support to so-call terrorists in Syria.

Mr Assad has also accused the US of trying to destabilise his country.

The newspaper said the pair discussed a means "to implement the results of the [Geneva] meeting ... on forming a transitional government in Syria that groups government and opposition representatives without mention of Assad's departure."

World powers at the meeting agreed to a plan for a transition which did not make an explicit call for Mr Assad to quit power, although the West and the opposition made clear it saw no role for him in a unity government.

Mr Annan said his talks were "constructive and candid," echoing Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi who termed the meeting "constructive and good."

On his Twitter account, Mr Makdissi said: "We reassured Annan of Syria's commitment to implement the six-point plan and hoped other side is mutually committed."

Mr Annan said he had received those assurances, but said the plan must be carried out "in a much better fashion" than before.

"I am leaving Syria but we will continue our dialogue, and as I said, the approach we discussed about ending the violence will be shared with the armed opposition," Mr Annan said.

"We have a team here on the ground that will continue to do that and I encourage the government and other entities with influence to help us do that."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on Friday for the observer mission in Syria be scaled down and to refocus on political efforts to end the conflict.

Mr Ban says the situation on the ground in Syria has taken another turn for the worse, with 1.5 million people in urgent need of aid.